India Broadband Forum

abcd_virus_007

Hi Guys,

Is there any tool, by which we can detect the current power consumption of any PC?

Can We do that for each components seperately??

Thanks

cool_techie_tvm

I am doubts about such softwares. U can use Everest to known the voltages passing through each components.

Alternatively u can use LocalCooling - Free Power Management Tool to Optimize Energy Savings and Edison PC Power Management Software | Edison to reduce the power consumption of the PC.

The Sorcerer

Doesnt work that way. They give you rough idea but they are far away from accurate. Really good reviewers use a load tester and an oscillope. load tester stresses on each rail according to the user and the reviewers usually starts off by testing by advertising specs. This is where men are divided from boys. The oscillope is used to indicate the level of ripple during load. The effeciency needs to be tested atleast in operational temps of 40 degrees celcius.

Gary4gar

On a Average a PC will on consume about 200w watts of power with Monitor off and CPU idle

cool_techie_tvm

Basically it is dependent upon the number of peripherals integrated in the PC and their wattage ratings..

saurav_k

doesnt sisoft sandra pro provides the feature of temperature monitoring for different components and different zones of pcs and laptops? i think it does ...

mickey

Thats a tough question....but i think there must be atleast some physical ways rather, softwares to know this..

cool_techie_tvm

Sisoft is just one among the lot. They are known for their benchmarking capabilities and it includes temperature monitoring too. Everest is an example of software which falls on the same category.

SiSoftware Zone

Lavalys - Comprehensive IT Security and Management

saurav_k

a very good article of cpu temperature monitoring ... How do I monitor CPU temperature?

puchu

Well my view is a bit different,because I believe that an average PC consumes somewhere around 80 to 120 watts of power with a processor,1GB RAM,one HDD,1 optical drive excluding monitor.

My PC
AMD 64 Athlon,
2.5GB (3 SLOTS,1+1+.5)
80GB (SATA) + 20GB (IDE) + 250GB (SATA) + 160GB (external),
2 optical drives,
7600GT 512MB(OC max) (with extra power input),
Pinnacle mediacenter internal TV tuner,
3 extra fans
17 LG FLATRON,
in idle state, consumes around 180 Watts and tuned to the highest graphics possible with all the themes and customization and all disks working with DVD burning on optical drives watching TV and playing games, consumes 280Watts max . But definitely it goes as high as 300 Watts during startup.

cool_techie_tvm

^ Does the power consumption include that of the monitor too? Or is it excluding the monitor.

puchu

including 17" TFT and for 19" TFT add 10 more watts.

saurav_k

see ... the best way to monitor power consumption is by hardware ... software procedures are not accurate generally ... check this:

Monitoring Power Consumption – Installation Supplement - Developer Zone - National Instruments

puchu

These numbers are from wattmeter(a tool used for AC power measurement) measurement.Or you can alternatively use a good multimeter.

cool_techie_tvm

Isnt wattmeter and multimeter the same?

puchu

No,wattmeter is specifically built for power measurement(generally AC power measurement) as DC power can be measured directly by just measuring the voltage and current across a load unlike AC as the power in DC is directly proportional to voltage and current,but in AC the RMS value of power is the approximate power consumed by the load.
As far as multimeter goes ,it can measure AC/DC voltage, current, resistance(of load) ,but there may be very few multimeters which can measure power(i.e, wattage).

cool_techie_tvm

Modern multimeters include all of those facilities. Gone are those days when people used to lug around with wattmeters... !!

puchu

But are you sure that you can measure wattage with an average multimeter, especially when its AC.